Is it safe to use a hand sanitizer to clean a phone?

The use of any liquid to clean electronic devices is ill-advised. Liquids, even thicker liquids such as hand sanitizer, can easily penetrate through small cracks and crevices in the case and enter the interior of the device where they can cause permanent damage and electrical shorts. In a worst case scenario, they could cause a short across the battery within the device and induce an electrical fire.

In addition to the risk of damage to the interior of the device, caustic liquids can cause permanent damage to the display screens. Many display screens have coating applied to them which help to eliminate things such as screen glare/ These coatings can quickly break down under the influence of caustic agents, including the concentrated isopropyl alcohol used in hand sanitizers. In the best case scenario, this coating is removed completely, resulting in the loss of that coatings function. In the worst case scenario, the removal of the coating is patchy resulting in areas of the screen which react differently than other areas of the screen and even visible peeling of the screen coating off the screen.

A far better choice is to take a clean, anti-scratching cloth such as those used for cleaning eyeglasses or a chamois (often used for buffing wax on vehicles), lightly dampening the surface of the cloth with a screen-cleaning spray, and gently wiping the cell-phone surface to remove any dirt or grime. In cases where the grime is more extensive, you can repeat this process. From personal experience, I have successfully used this procedure to remove even permanent markers which had been used on cell-phone displays.